Advances in network communication and switching are moving ahead with great speed. The advent of optical network connections requires the evolution of network switching technologies that can perform at high rates.
Conventional technology requires a very large number of devices to achieve the high rates and does not provide support for future high data rate switching needs. One of the hindrances of conventional technology is the use of the crossbar switch and associated algorithms for setting the switch. Crossbar switch technology is relatively simple in theory, but can be very complicated to optimize since for each piece of data, there can be a number of switches that need to be set and those switches may conflict with transmission of another piece of data. Some people have attempted to develop techniques that can provide support for high data rates, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,649 describes a crossbar switch algorithm that attempts to optimize the decision tree, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,858 describes another technique. However, such techniques do not provide sufficient bandwidth for future needs.
What are needed are an advanced telecommunications router and crossbar switch controller that is capable of performing at a level consistent with optical network systems.